Ciem in various media
Ciem, a comic book superheroine featured in Dozerfleet Comics, has appeared in several works since she was first conceptualized. She began as little more than Candice Marie Levens, the daughter of Stan and Shalia Flippo left over after the events in The Battle for Gerosha. She began life in concept as just another one of their children, after Stan had received the "Have 10 Children" want. At the time, the entire Gerosha Chronicles were being made with The Sims 2. Naturally, the first Ciem-related media followed suit. In an effort to distribute Ciem online without having to publish everything to the very-restricting Sims 2 Story Exchange, the DSHW format was formally specified. Battle for Gerosha was an early experiment with what would become DSHW web technology. Ciem became the first major effort at creating comics in said format, back in 2005. Versions of Ciem to date Webcomics The '''Ciem Webcomic Trilogy consisted of three DSHW stories that were created with The Sims 2 and several of its expansion packs. It was originally developed as a spin-off of the webcomic The Battle for Gerosha, first attempted in May of 2005. Later that year, the idea for an action story along the lines of Spider-Man and X-Men using the same game engine emerged. The focus that had been on Stan, Shalia, and Reily quickly shifted to Candice, previously only a footnote character. The series features the Gerosha neighborhood file N001_User00244.package as Candi Levens. It also featured real-life Elizabeth Pegouskie as Laurie Pegol, Darla Lattimere as Dhalia Lorrice, and Meredith Doyle as Merdie. Throughout the webcomics themselves, Ciem battled Musaran, Jeff the Invisible, Don the Psycho, Poison Dart Eddie, Botan, Lobe, Captain Aardwulf, Victor Nanale, Lloyd Kolumn, Sapphire King, and Milp. Her friend Dolly Malestrom became the Earwig in the third story. Development ''The Battle for Gerosha'' (Gerosha Prime) In May of 2005, The Battle for Gerosha was first attempted as an early experiment in Dozerfleet Webcomics machinima's DSHW's. Initially beginning as a walk-through of the lives and times of Stan and Shalia Flippo, the story quickly evolved into a very elaborate comic book sci-fi. It wasn't long before it became fully possible to turn Gerosha into something more. The Sims used for actors had, of course, their own aspirations. Since they both aspired towards family and there were no expansion packs at the time, the simple solution was for Stan and Shalia to simply have as many children as possible. Eventually, some of the kids would be removed from the canon. Vince would be re-named Tom in later versions, and the children Jason and Tanya would be removed from the Flippo Family Genealogy. It would remain true that through experimentation on baby Stan, there would be Ploribus Philippine. Stan and Shalia would have seven kids together: Reily, Mike, Jeff, Tom, Candi, Miriam, and Marina. Erin was adopted after the sudden and tragic deaths of her real parents, Geoffrey and Patricia Wyer. In the development process for the third attempt at the first Ciem; Jason and Tanya were removed due to inability to fit them into the timeline. Reily would marry Ashlee Kornsdall and become a well-paid chef, having a son named Kirby. He ends up serving little purpose after Stan and Shalia's deaths. Mike founds his own party store with his brother Jeff. Marina has problems controlling her sexual appetite, and after getting pregnant from one of many paper delivery boys, decides to marry Matthew Baret. Their son will grow up to be Andy Baret, "the Pitohui." This leaves Erin, Candi, and Miriam. The story of the Phaelites, Meethlites, and Centhuen and Milthuen experiments, as of chapter 2 of the second attempt at Ciem, would be explained to Candi and Miriam as they are being housed by Erin; who takes over raising them from Stan and Shalia. It was decided that Gerosha left a lot of potential behind, as many would undoubtedly wish to know the fate of the Flippo family's children. The emphasis quickly shifted to Candi primarily, and when the idea came to make Candi part-centipede and a parody of Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man'' films, the beginnings of Ciem were born. Gerosha Prime Ciem Come June of 2005, the decision was made to embark on Ciem's first story. The original telling was crude, but several of the doctrines of Candi's life were established. In particular, getting the game to respect genetic considerations in terms of how Candi should look was difficult. Candi is Indo-Persian Mulatto, but is depicted in the archived original as being Caucasian. The costume was very crude, and so was most of the rest of the storytelling. Donte McArthur was first introduced into the timeline, as was his brother Khumar. Originally, Donte was going to be named "Donte Williams." This was changed by the time of the first attempt at Ciem 2. Jeraime, Henry, Dolly, Lindsay, and Duke Arfaas were also introduced, along with Harga Hebbleskin. Musaran was originally "L1 the Llama." The change to a shrew-based villain instead of a llama was prompted from pre-release criticism that the llama costume "looked just plain stupid." The first part of Ciem has been attempted a total of three times. The second attempt was scrapped due to the machine on which it was contained dying when the ATX power supply failed, and evidence being discovered on that same machine of hard drive fatigue. The third attempt was begun on January 1st, 2007. It finished its production schedule and went completely into post-production on October 2nd, 2007. ''Ciem 2'': From Gerosha Prime to Classic Gerosha Ciem 2 has been attempted twice. Ciem 2's storyline takes place two years after the story arc of the first one. This one established many more standards, such as the exact look that the Ciem suit should have. More Ciem suit designs would be experimented with, including for the first attempt at Ciem 3. In September of 2005, the first attempt at the story was initiated. The post-production was never finished. Captain Aardwulf was selected as the villain, with his personality being a merge between Gollum and Doc Ock. In October of 2007, designs for the suits for Ciem and Capp Aard would be radically altered from their versions in the 2005 version. "Septagon weaving" was added to the Ciem suit to give it more texture. A new villain, Lloyd Kolumn, was introduced; as a parody of Lt. Col. Kudrow in Mercury Rising, as played by Alec Baldwin. His quest to cover up his crooked politics would lead him to assist the Meethlites in their plot to trap Miriam "Sniperbadger" Flippo. Developing Ciem 3 This story was also attempted twice, but the first attempt finished post-production. Much changed between versions, but Milp remained the chief villain. In addition, Lobe and Musaran II were in this one. It was established that it isn't until Milp is defeated and Arfaas dead that Candi can safely go back to a family life with Donte, and not worry about Meethlite threats. In keeping with the changes to Ciem 2, Lloyd Kolumn made an appearance in this story as a fallen former government official, out for revenge against Ciem for costing him his job. Developing Path of the Ming-Cho This was decided on as an interquel for Ciem 2 and Ciem 3. The first attempt never truly went off the ground, but it was decided what it would entail. Ciem herself would not feature in this, but the same universe would exist. Unlike the Ciem Trilogy, which emphasized its characters, Path of the Ming-Cho would emphasize background and scenic design. Path would follow the exploits of Rob and Hannah Marrington as they join the mysterious "Jake" on a quest to Nevada to rid the world of the Ming-Yo's evil twin, the Ming-Cho, before the radioactive "blue rock" falls into the wrong hands. The five stories together made up the original Gerosha Chronicles. However, due to the Ciem Trilogy being its own package, the other two stories would have been a separate package. The Gerosha Chronicles are now a much-larger collection in-the-works. Web format It was eventually decided that instead of telling a simple story, the stories would each have their own subdomain websites. The websites would function "partially as a storybook, and partially as a DVD, only on the web." In keeping with the DVD theme, credits pages are appended to the tail ends of stories. This format would come to be known as "DSHW," standing for "DVD-Storybook Hybrid Webcomic," to distinguish the format from more traditional formats. Game mods The credits pages for all three parts of the Ciem Trilogy were to feature credits to various 3rd-party creators of mods for The Sims 2, whose mods visibly featured in some way in the comic. Numerous mod authors who wrote only behavioral hacks, such as TwoJeffs, were not to be mentioned in the credits; since their mods have no visible influence. However, global hacks such as IngeJones' and Numenor's hacks to hide unwanted UI effects from screenshots were given credit. Most of the credits went to contributors of decorative objects and vehicles. Mod The Sims was the source of most of mods that used, but several were taken from InSimenator.org, Sims2Workshop, and ExnemSims. SimLogical mods and hacks were also used. Music See also: [[Music For and Inspirational to Ciem|Music For and Inspirational to Ciem]], [[Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 2|Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 2]], [[Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 3|Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 3]] The credits pages featured music from various artists, with songs played from an embedded Playlist.com stream. Each stream was said to be part of an "album" for the webcomic, treated the same as if a film soundtrack. As such, each comic got its own album. Shooting Modifications for shooting The camera that was used was modified by CaptFalcon007 to allow for more bottom-up angle capability. While this camera has developed a bad reputation on some sites as "a cheap way to look up skirts," it proved very useful for battle sequences. The shots for most of Ciem were shot using the "C'" button in-game. Graphics corruption issues The webcomic trilogy was set to be created on a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop, which had an Intel chipset with severe limitations. As a result, significant graphics corruption occurred when running the ''Seasons expansion pack. To compensate for this in shots that had to be captured in the full game with all expansions, the decision was made that the '''Print Screen button would be used with the game's Tab-Cam or "Free Cam." This allowed for more direct importation into Photoshop, making production and post-production stages more integrated while also helping to preserve graphical integrity. Photoshop The footage, once imported into Photoshop Elements, focused largely on hiding graphic problems to make the polygon crossings more seamless, among other things. The centilegs were the most frequently-used special effect in Ciem, and most other effects consisted of lighting and motion blurs in accordance to what was happening in a given scene. The other time blurs were used, it was to help obscure details or else create surreal effects. When Candi prepares herself to have sex with Denny, blurs are used extensively in spite an extreme closeup on their faces, to convey Candi's heightened sense of pleasure. A few times in the first story, blood was painted where it wasn't initially. The Ciem suit The most common Photoshop work on the Ciem suit other than obscuring polygon edges was to make the glass pieces for her green bead lenses look more like what they were supposed to, and less like the Body Shop-created face paint that was actually being used. The mouth was obscured so as not to show through her mask, and the outer edges of her ears were forced further back into the fabric, or sometimes hidden completely. In some Photoshops, texture details were added to her suit. Aspect ratios There initially was no set, fixed aspect ratio for images early on. As of the middle of the first attempt at The Battle for Gerosha, the preferred aspect ratio for images was set to 300x225. Later, for the first attempt at Ciem 2, the resolution was set to 400x300. While the second attempt at Ciem was shot in 400x300 and the third attempt was nearly shot in the same manner, it was decided as of the end of the ninth chapter of the third attempt that all footage should be shot in a widescreen 500x282 format. There were many complications that resulted from converting footage to this aspect ratio, with details being cropped out of the first six chapters in what can at best be called a difficult compromise. Some of the most difficult shots have black edges merely added to them, so that the widescreen rules would not be violated whilst the image would still have the necessary full screen details. By the time that Ciem 2 was set in motion, it was decided that all further work would be shot in 1280x720, and then scaled down to 500x282 for web syndication. AS DSHW technology improved, 800x483 became a standard format. By DSHW 2.6, images are to scale in a more-or-less 16:9 aspect ratio so that they are consistent in size with their place relative to the browser window's size. Acting Given the nature of Sims as characters, animations were taken from the game and used in ways not expected, with the freeze frames and camera angles used to help convey emotions. Particular emphasis on angles was done to emulate Candi's vulnerability at the moment that a scene was happening, or else the inner vulnerability of whomever was the subject of that chapter. Series ''Ciem 1'' Main article: Ciem (webcomic) The first story reveals to us who Candi Flippo is, her place in the Flippo Family Genealogy, and how she came to acquire her amazing powers of centuition, healing, retractable centilegs, and more. It also discusses her inner turmoil over trying to decide what, if any love life, she should have and embrace, as well as what to do if she should ever find herself making poor choices in the direction of her love life. After a night of confessing secrets with her sisters, Candi prepares to say goodbye to her boyfriend Donte. However, shortly after he leaves, he is captured by evil Meethlite aliens. Candi ends up battling to the death with a crazed gangster named Don the Psycho. She discovers that her older sister Erin has been murdered by the Meethlite gangsters Gunner and Skellig. Feeling guilty for not warning Erin of the threatening nature of a phone call the house had received the previous night, Candi runs away and moves in to a house in the town of Viron, a suburb of Dirbine. Believing herself responsible for Donte's capture and led to believe he is dead, Candi tries to start her life over and also master her centipede powers to fight off the Meethlites and crime in general. She goes into forensic investigation and befriends her classmate Laurie Pegol. After her life is saved by the former parts supplier Denny Levens, she develops affection for and eventually marries him. However, their married life is wrought with turmoil as their lives are constantly threatened. The villains Botan and Musaran surface and go on murder sprees in Dirbine. Unable to defeat either due to pregnancy, Candi waits for her daughter to be born, but loses Denny and the baby to Musaran. Botan leaves town after getting revenge against the man who stole his car. Musaran continues his murder sprees while the Meethlites take over the city and corrupt the police. As the National Guard looks for an opportunity to break in to the city and oust the Meethlites under the supervision of Ploribus Philippine, the now childless widow Candi vows to avenge her lost family and reclaim Jeraime Malestrom from the insanity of the Musaran AI backvisor under his helmet. She devotes her life to fighting crime in general, and dons the mantle of "Ciem" to protect her still-living loved ones. When she learns that Donte is still alive, but barely; she sets out to free him from Musaran and use his help to defeat the Meethlites in their new terror ship, which is a giant UFO. The quest leads her into direct contact with Musaran, and the result is an epic battle. ''Ciem 2'' Main Article: Ciem 2 Following two years later, Candi now has a good life, but fears that she's losing control of her lustful appetite. She and Donte both feel under strong pressure to get married soon, especially since Donte wishes to adopt an orphan named Charlie Wortell in order to keep a promise to a deceased friend. Meanwhile, a crooked government agent named Lloyd Kolumn aids the Meethlites in directing an attack on the city of Dirbine by the Chinese through manipulation and through the hijacking of Miriam's "Sniperbadger" online persona. Miriam, threatened by enemies from all over the world and carrying twins, sets out to find her sister for safety. To make matters worse, Candi and Donte's drinks at a banquet are poisoned and both of them pass out when they get to Candi's house. Candi's struggles with her own conscience when she discovers she's been raped. When she gets Donte to the hospital, she learns she's acquired a Meethlite flu virus that will eventually run its course but which could temporarily rob her of her powers as Ciem. In spite the risk, she sets out to protect her sister from the onslaught of insanity as a CIA agent with a stolen rock called the Ming-Yo proves the ticket the Meethlites need to get their clutches on in order to start a nuclear war. Candi defeats several of Kolumn's forces as Ciem and then finds her sister and the agent, Vienna Dockler. Making matters worse still, the Meethlites have transformed the once well-meaning sea captain Simon Aardvonius into the insane part-man, part-hyena, part-aardwolf creature known as Captain Aardwulf, or "Capp Aard" for short. As part of his insanity, Aard obsesses with capturing both Miriam and the Ming-Yo to use in his scheme to create an empire of termite farms to feed his never-ending lust for devouring termites. Candi must get a grip on her own decaying moral resolve, overcome her illness, hope that Donte recovers as well, and get the help of her old and new friends to overcome the madman and rescue her sister, all while still helping to foil Kolumn and expose his corruption. ''Ciem 3'' Main article: Ciem 3 In Ciem 3, Candi has finally acquired almost everything her heart could ever desire. She has a successful job as a profiler, a happy marriage to Donte, a healthy relationship with her adopted son Charlie, and the best news of all: Duke Arfaas is dead! As gravy to that, the mayor of Dirbine wants to invite Ciem to his birthday celebration. But Candi senses things are about to change for the worse. Her half-brother Ploribus becomes increasingly reclusive and anti-social, causing alarm amongst all of his family. Adding to that, Donte reveals that he has to leave for more treatments for his cancer. Candi's fears soon prove justified, when a fallen Kolumn takes several troops of his and conspires to help Kimiyato arrive in the US as "Milp," and frame Candi for child abuse. Ciem easily battles off the Mexican werewolf Lobe and then proves too skilled for Milp to defeat in direct combat. However, Botan has returned seeking a cure, and is more powerful with his weeds than ever before. Candi is captured by Kolumn and Charlie is hospitalized, with the babysitter's corpse never being found. Kolumn, taking his revenge further, also captures Kyle "Meerkat" Freneti and Charlotte "Mukade" Yamamura, and puts them with Candi in a prison remotely hidden near the coastline of California. There, he intends to drown his prisoners and report back to the Meethlites, who are plotting their return in a few decades to Earth to finish what Arfaas started. He also intends to have Candi personally beheaded and deliver her head to the Meethlites' museum committee. Offended by Ploribus' initial inaction, Dolly Malestrom steals an experimental suit from Ploribus and becomes the "Earwig" in an attempt to rescue her friends and ward off the evil threat of Milp on the city. However, the AI in the Earwig helmet was only slightly altered from a Meethlite backvisor, and threatens to drive Dolly evil and insane every time she uses it. With it, she defeats her nephew Henry Malestrom, who has been turned into the second Musaran. She nearly kills Botan, but Botan is ironically saved by Milp, who puts a backvisor on him and uses it to control him. Milp uses a Meethlite potion to turn herself into a monster, and she takes over downtown Dirbine with the help of Botan. Dolly rescues Charlie and helps all of Ploribus' refugee camp to escape when Milp learns of the camp's location. She escapes when Ploribus tries to restrain her, and makes her way to California where she attempts to rescue the others but instead goes on a killing spree against Kolumn's guards. Candi secretly frees Delusia, who in turn saves Candi's life after her head is chopped off. Delusia frees Candi from her wristband also, turning her centipede powers back on. However, she ends up being killed by a guard as Candi heals. Candi kills the guard and steals his clothes. The floodgates open to drown the prisoners, with Kolumn and his men trapped inside the room where they were holding Candi's execution. The Earwig begins killing off whatever remains of Kolumn's guards. Candi seizes this opportunity to break herself out of the jail cell, and frees Charlotte and Kyle. The trio secure an exit, and attempt to free as many prisoners as possible before they all drown. The helmet threatens to make Dolly permanently insane. Candi and her friends battle with the enraged monster, eventually knocking the helmet off of Dolly's head and Candi breaking it over her knee. Charlotte throws the AI helmet into the ocean, where it becomes forever lost. Dolly is then forced to fight as the Earwig without her helmet. All the heroes return, with Kolumn defeated, to Dirbine in time to see what Milp and Botan have done to it. Ciem initially begs Dolly not to get involved, but realizes that Meerkat and Mukade's help may not be enough. Ploribus finally relents and sacrifices himself to wound Milp, but Dolly decides she must disprove the Meethlite prophecies and try to win back Botan from Milp's control in order to save her friends from certain death. Cancellation of Ciem Tomorrow There were also plans in the works for a webcomic titled Ciem Tomorrow, which would document the exploits of Candi's daughter Dana. However, when Ciem 2 and Ciem 3 were canceled midway through production, Ciem Tomorrow as a project was scrapped. It is set to be renewed as a short story series in the Comprehensive Gerosha continuity. References to other Dozerfleet works While the primary coffee store chain in the Viron University neighborhood is Scarface, a parody of Starbucks, the Hazy Eighties Bowling Alley where Candi initially held a job had an advanced Grillitan Diner section, suggesting that the Grillitan crew's venture turned successful many years after they started it. Thematically, there is also common ground with the Meshalutian Trilogy, and with Stationery Voyagers. The skintone used for Meethlites is one that was initially used for the Ripper Ghost from 90 Has No Secant. Candi's preoccupation with the loss of her virginity, and feeling that she was cheated, is very similar to the feelings of Bindaf 3000 crew member Neone Delft on the matter. The Hebbleskin Gang's obsession with beheading women who are enemies of their states, and turning their heads into museum exhibits, is nearly identical to the hobbies of Astrabolo in Stationery Voyagers: Final Hope. Candi's long, flowing, black hair, athletic body, tan skin, and potent lust made her very similar to both Vaneesa Abiyoti from Final Hope and Juanita Bines from Mechanical Conflict. Denny Levens is a less-athletic, brown-haired take on Harley Maraude/Rubber Phantom, also from Mechanical Conflict. References to non-Dozerfleet works The tales of Ciem are also laced with references to various things not made by Dozerfleet. The idea for the AI neural backvisors that the Meethlites use to control victims and create evil cyborgs with, for example, is inspired by three separate sources. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films are frequently spoofed and imitated in the webcomics, and all the main villains were meant to in some way spoof Spider-Man or X-Men villains. Henry Malestrom, for example, was intended to be a cross between Darth Vader and Harry Osborn, with the name "Henry" chosen because of the main character in Rookie of the Year. Arfaas' mind control AI neural backvisors were inspired by Batman: The Animated Series; where Jarvis Tetch, the "Mad Hatter," used something similar to brainwash Gotham residents. The idea for Musaran's AI to have the personality it does is inspired by Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, wherein which the evil AI "Omega" transforms Doc into O'Malley. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair inspired Musaran's changing table, a place where Jeraime is temporarily in control of himself and begging to be set free before the Musran visor recharges and is placed back on him. The table that AI backvisor victims are strapped to so they don't get away is similar to the one on which Darth Vader was created in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The "Malestrom" family is a deliberate misspelling and spoof of Gunnar Maelstrom from Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?. Note: While there is a Maelstrom character in the Marvel universe, he did not inspire Jeraime Malestrom in any way. The list of other works alluded to or spoofed is nearly limitless, but this is a rough look at the inspirations that went into inspiring Ciem. Novel series Main article: Ciem: Vigilante Centipede Avoiding association with existing films In May of 2010, it was confirmed that the entire Ciem franchise was about to be rebooted. The original webcomic Ciem had been given its simple name due to the fact that its original title was Ciem: The Human Centipede. Dozerfleet staff didn't want Ciem to be confused with Tom Six's film The Human Centipede, which gained cult status quickly in 2009. Also, there was some desire to flesh out details of the original story more; and to create a profitable series of books that would stand on their own. The original webcomic was intentionally geared to parody Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, but the new story's incentive was to take what makes Ciem unique in concept and embrace that, divorcing itself as much as possible from Marvel properties into a standalone item. Avoiding over-dependence on Electronic Arts At the same time, the new Ciem sought make itself as independent of [[Wikipedia:The Sims (franchise)|the Sims franchise]] as possible by finding other ways to depict characters, and defining as many characters as possible outside of the game. While both Sims 2 and Sims 3 remain in use for concept art and storyboards, the new series seeks to make itself stand alone whether it has any illustrations or not. Storyboards for Ciem: Vigilante Centipede are available for view on DeviantArt here. Pictures containing gore, or pictures of (obscured) nudity, are assigned a "mature content" warning flag. In late March of 2011, Dozerfleet joined forces with UGO.com and AFD Studios to re-create approximations of Gerosha universe characters using HeroMachine 3. While these illustrations will not be used for any final books, they serve a purpose on the wiki by adding 2D comic strip credibility to characters that previously had only ever been known to exist as Sims. By mid-April of 2011, the first half of Vigilante Centipede had been mapped out in Chapter Backbones. In July of 2012, the open-source program MakeHuman 3D began being employed for purposes of the creation of book and album cover art. A 3D nude and bald Candi model would be posed at the appropriate angle, have a Ciem suit painted on top of her, and then imposed with Photoshop into a photographic background. The front book cover for Vigilante Centipede uses just such a superimposition. The stock photo used is an alleyway in downtown Grand Ledge, MI. It is, in fact, the same stock photo that was originally used for Ciem 2. New stock photos were shot for ''Ciem: Vigilante Centipede'': The Album, Ciem: Nuclear Crisis, and Ciem: Condemnation. ''Cataclysmic Horizons'' Main article: Cataclysmic Horizons (series) In late November and early December of 2012, however, the novel series was canceled. A new series, titled Cataclysmic Horizons, re-envisioned Ciem as an ensemble character in a greater series. This series could be viewed as either a new novel series, or as a potential TV series. Its format was modeled after that for Stationery Voyagers. Necessary changes to Ciem's biography were made to conform her to the new continuity. Cast and characters Major characters Heroes See also * ''Ciem'' * Ciem 2 * Ciem 3 * The Gerosha Chronicles * The Battle for Gerosha * Path of the Ming-Cho * Ciem: Vigilante Centipede External links * Ciem wecomic series discussion at TVTropes.org Category: Ciem media